Simon Fujiwara
Hope House 
 

What is real? It seems not only products are being sold that promise an emotional, authentic involvement, but also experiences themselves. The French philosopher Tristan Garcia speaks of an »intense life« which may be enhanced even in relation to leisure and recreation. Absolute commercialization eschews nothing, not even historical taboos. For the first KUB exhibition in 2018, Simon Fujiwara, who has already been responsible for choreographing Kunsthaus Bregenz’s Billboards during 2017, is now approaching an awkward subject for marketing, the history of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

The building, which is largely a reconstruction containing only a few remains of the original family artifacts, is a magnet for visitors. Fujiwara is responding to the restoration of the spaces by reproducing the building to 1:1 scale at Kunsthaus Bregenz. His source is the kit model available at the Anne Frank House museum shop. From the replica, from the set of copies, a large-scale copy will result, which will be made partially accessible to visitors. This is a continuation of Kunsthaus Bregenz’s distinctive interventions, this time addressing inevitable issues of authenticity, originality, value, history, and replicability. Simon Fujiwara: »The project isn’t a parody of capitalism, it shows capitalism.«

Biography

Simon Fujiwara, born in London in 1982, spent his childhood moving between Japan, Europe, and Africa. He studied at Cambridge University and Städelschule in Frankfurt/Main.

Working often in collaboration with others in the telling of supposedly personal stories, Fujiwara’s work explores the concept of the contemporary individual – self-determined, self-narrativised, unique – and presents a highly contingent notion of the self that can only be defined through the participation of others.

Fujiwara has had solo exhibitions at Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (2011), Tate St Ives (2012), Tokyo Opera City Gallery (2015), Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2016), Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2016), and Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv (2017), amongst others. His work has been presented in various group exhibitions, including Storylines, Guggenheim New York (2015), and Un Nouveau Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2014). He was represented at the 53th Venice Biennale (2009), São Paulo Biennial (2010), Shanghai Biennial (2012), Sharjah Biennial (2013), and Berlin Biennale (2016).